Rating: 
Summary: quality video only with enough light, 2MP stills
Review: the optura 300's selling points are its small size and ability to capture 2MP stills. but in my opinion, there are two hundred reasons ($$) to look elsewhere.pros:
- ultra compact design (2.0 x 4.6 x 4.0 inches), very light weight at 15.9 oz.
- 10x optical zoom.
- very good video performance when you have enough light.
- analog-to-digital conversion.
- 2MP stills.
- ability to capture MPEG4 movies directly into SD card.
- allows a good deal of manual control.
- supports add-on lenses and lots of optional accessories.
- miniDV media is widely supported.
- great connectivity options: firewire, USB, S-video, headphone, mic input, etc.
- very silent motor operation - you can't hear anything even in a quiet environment.
- built-in pop-up flash and AF assist lamp for taking stills.
- continuous shooting mode at 30 VGA images at 3 fps.
- bright LCD.
- as with most canon products, the printed manual is very good. cons:
- high price, especially compared to sony's pc-105 and panasonic's gs-70.
- below average low light performance.
- no accessory shoe (it's really puzzling to me why canon didn't incorporate a hot shoe).
- lots of controls in the rear part of the camcorder - this will take getting used to.
- image stabilization could be better.
- below average battery life with included battery.
- video is pretty useless (very choppy) with low light modes, even with built-in LED lamp.
- this camcorder loads from the rear; depending on your tripod, you may or may not be able to replace your tape while mounted on a tripod.
- viewfinder does not extend.
- as with the Elura 50, mic placement is on top of camcorder (most vertical camcorders do) which means it picks up the videographer's voice more readily.
- higher capacity batteries are bigger than what was supplied (BP-407) and WILL protrude sideways from this camcorder's body, making holding this unit a bit awkward.
- even with 2MP stills on this camcorder, you can still do better with a stand-alone digital camera.
- it would have been nice to get a bigger 3.5" LCD.
- 8MB SD card provided is inadequate so add $$ to your budget to buy more memory.
- you'll definitely want to buy a spare battery so add a few more $$ to your budget. the optura 300 is a solid camcorder when you have sufficient lighting with the hook of 2MP stills. but i believe that you can do better. if you want a matchbox style ultra-compact camcorder, you would be better off with sony's pc-105. or, you can get panasonic's gs-70 and move up to 3CCD video performance. either way, you'll end up with a camcorder with similar features as the optura 300 (except for the 2MP still capability) and have a couple of hundred bucks left over for more electronic toys! i hope this helps you with your buying decision. peace
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